by Evgenia Kopnanos
“Συννεφιασμένη Κυριακή” (“Cloudy Sunday”) is a song I grew up with. My family is filled with musicians that came from the Greek Islands, so on holidays we would all gather in our living room and listen to my family play fairly old Greek Songs. “Cloudy Sunday” specifically is a song that sticks out to me.
When listening to music, I generally focus more on lyrics. While I enjoy the beat of songs, lyrics are what I pay the most attention to. When listening to Greek songs specifically, I like to find songs that help me expand my Greek vocabulary. Although it was my first language, since being in college I find myself speaking the language less and less. So, it is important to me that I strengthen my vocabulary through the music. Something else that I consider is the symbolism in songs.
Based on what I determine makes a song good, I can say that this is one of the best Greek songs I have heard. I listen to it almost every day and the lyrics are truly beautiful. The whole song is the artist, Vassilis Tsitanis, comparing his heart breaking to a cloudy Sunday afternoon. Throughout the song, Tsitanis is also calling out to God and the Virgin Mary to make the clouds go away or to make the rain pour.
In my mind, Tsitanis was always writing about heartbreak. That’s what I interpreted the symbolism of the song to be. Until I looked up the lyrics in English for this assignment a series of articles came up discussing the history of the song which gave it a much deeper meaning.
In the past Tsitanis never spoke about what inspired him to write the song. However, after he died and his biography was published, he discussed the inspiration that came to him on a cloudy Sunday. That Sunday was during World War 2 when he watched three young men graffiti “Death to Fascism—Freedom” Before they could even finish German Soldiers approached and killed them on the spot. Tsitanis could not fathom what had happened until the words “Cloudy Sunday” came to mind and inspired the first few lyrics of the song which are:
“Cloudy Sunday, you resemble my heart Which is always cloudy, Christ and the Virgin Mary.”
One other criterion I have for what makes a Greek song good is how it helps expand my Greek vocabulary. I find that speaking Greek with mainly my cousins and brother, we utilize “Greek Slang” much more than the proper language. This is the song that helped my younger brother and I learn the proper Greek terms for the weather.
This song has meant a lot to me throughout my whole life. My interpretation of the original song is what led me to love the song so much and the real symbolism behind the lyrics means so much more because this is where my family came from. However, it will always have a special place in my heart because of what comes to mind when I hear it, the memories of being in the living room on holidays with wine and food surrounding us.